My 58-caliber Minie bullets are individually hand-cast from pure soft lead, with BHN hardness of 5. I have been shooting these bullets for years from my 1861 Springfield, but they can be fired from any 58-caliber or 577-caliber black powder rifle-musket in good shooting condition. These bullets are cast from my Ideal (Lyman) 575213OS mold. This was the most common bullet used during the War Between the States, having been adopted by the U.S. Army in 1855 and used extensively by both sides. While it looks similar to the bullet designed by Claude-Etienne Minié in the 1840s, these are more correctly "Burton balls" as this particular bullet was developed by James Burton, the Master Armorer at Harpers Ferry, specifically for the Springfield Model 1855 rifle. But the name "Minie" stuck, as millions of Civil War soldiers persisted in calling them "minnie balls."

Unsized, Unlubricated 58cal Minie bullets (as they come out of the mold)

Sized & Lubricated Minie bullets

I'm very picky with my cast bullets; those with defects (bad skirts, cavity in the nose or other casting void, etc.) get tossed right back into the lead pot. This is in stark contrast to the Minie balls commonly purchased on other popular sites, which are not sized and frequently have severe defects, voids, cavities in the base, and so on. I package the Minie balls extra carefully to prevent (insofar as possible) any damage occurring to the very soft lead balls during shipment.

The unsized and unlubricated bullets are exactly as the mold makes them; they are about .578 in diameter. The sized bullets are run through a .575-inch sizing die which visibly swages them down in size to facilitate easy, consistent loading in a 58-cal or 577-cal rifle. Lubricated bullets​ are sized first and then lubricated in the historically-correct composition of beeswax and tallow.

Ready-to-shoot paper cartridges with this bullet are also available here.

Be sure to check out the Williams patent "cleaner" bullets, available here. By 1863, Williams "cleaner" bullets were being included in every pack of rifle-musket ammunition, and by late war, as many as 6 out of the 10 rounds in each package contained Williams bullets.